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Hero of the Day: Brooklyn eatery turns into soup kitchen for laid off workers

03/28/2020

Down on their luck hospitality workers are getting the VIP treatment in Brooklyn, thanks to a pair of generous restaurateurs who are serving up gourmet meals and handing out free groceries and other essentials amid the Big Apple’s coronavirus crisis.

For four days a week, Nate Adler and Flip Biddelman use their Williamsburg restaurant Gertie as a part-time soup kitchen for laid off workers — keeping most of their own staff gainfully employed in the process.

“The program is specifically geared to helping hospitality workers. Obviously 90-plus percent of hospitality workers are out of a job right now. I could not think of a better example of a win-win situation,” Adler, 30, told The Post.

“We get to pay employees to be here, and we’re servicing the community. We’re all benefiting from it. It’s a pretty amazing thing.”

The workers can come to the Grand Street restaurant Tuesday-Friday between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. for dinner and essentials, including bags of quinoa, bags of coffee, pasta, and even hard to find toilet paper.

Last week they served up braised chicken, white beans and greens, marinated beets and cucumbers and sent each meal off with a cookie donated from nearby Milk Bar.